The Marines Have Landed
by Genome Soldier
Summary: When a transport plane that is carrying a platoon of United States marines is diverted into the Bermuda Triangle, a rip in time takes the soldiers to the world of HTTYD where they have to adjust to a world filled with Dragons and vikings to boot.
1. The Bermuda Triangle

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the rights to the film How To Train Your Dragon, nor the rights to the children's book the film is based on.

**Warning:** This fic will be rated T, as there will be some blood here and there, coarse language, and possibly some semi-lovely stuff later on.

**Acknowledgement:** I wish to thank my Beta reader Star-struck Inu for her help in getting this fic up and running.

Chapter 1. The Bermuda Triangle

It was a hot, spring day in the United States Marines base; located in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Although it was early in the morning, there was a lot of hurried movement around the base as, roughly forty, fully packed and armed marines of the 1st Platoon 2nd battalion 2nd Marine Corps were preparing to board a large Boeing C-17A Globemaster III transport aircraft. Although the loading of the plane was going smoothly, a number of the troops were complaining about the fact that their leave had seemed to go by way too fast for any of them to enjoy decently. One soldier, a Corporal named Sweetwater, nicknamed Sweets remarked, " Man this is bullshit! We just finished a rotation in Baghdad about a month ago I though we'd at least get a couple of months to unwind after that hell of a year we went through in Fallujha."

Listening in to the conservations of the whining soldiers, is the guy who will be telling the story of the events that occurred following the take off of this ill fated plane from the Marine base in North Carolina. My name is Joseph Gibson and I am the lieutenant in charge of the combat squad that Sweets belongs to. Feeling somewhat dissapointed with my comrades pessimistic view of our current deployment, but wanting to make light of the situation, I chimed in with "Oh you know those rear echelon commanders back at HQ just want to get rid of ya Sweets. Even if it means sending the rest of us to die in some God forsaken country."

Sweets looked at me sourly, but after a few seconds broke into full out laughter; in between fits of laughter he managed to say, " You always know the right things to say in order to get under my skin Fearless Joe man. I hope you're the one who buys the farm this time." Knowing his jest were harmless, I only smiled at Sweets and prepared to walk up the ramp into the plane itself. Even though I was as gung ho to acquire some fancy nickname as any other marine present on the plane; I hated that title, Fearless Joe. I felt that I had never done something worthwhile to earn the title that any other soldier could have done in the various chaotic battle situations that can arise during a simple mounted Humvee patrol mission. Any soldier, with a good pair of hands, is capable of using a Humvee's mounted .50 caliber machine gun and mow down attacking insurgents. It didn't take knowing brain surgery to kill a man The would break like a piece of grass being mowed by a lawnmower. I myself however, preferred the finer qualities of weapons such as the M-4, which had gotten me and my fellow marines out of many life or death circumstances during our platoons various tours of duty.

Suddenly, one my squad's new replacement soldiers shouted out, "Atten-hut! Officer on deck." And seemingly out of nowhere the acting commander of the unit, a Colonel by the named Thomas Shepard, appeared.

He shouted, " Listen up Marines! We're almost ready to get this bird off the ground and begin the long, tiring journey back to our base in Baghdad, Iraq. This is where most of you will be immediately assigned to do whatever dangerous and extremely deadly jobs we can find for men of your caliber."

After pausing a few seconds to take a breath the Colonel continued "I hope you boys, all being grown ups now, should know by now that I want this flight to go as smoothly as possible. So no fights to prove who is the stronger male, because I'll win, or any cell phones to check your B.S myspace page or some random crap like that, you got me?"

All the marines present on the plane, including myself, responded with the distinct "Hoorah!!!!" cry of the Corps that precedes most talks from the top brass.

After being dismissed by the Colonel, a wave of his hand, the dismissed marines sat down and strapped themselves into their respective seats inside the transport plane. Following another short waiting period of about thirty minutes, our plane was soon cleared for take off and proceeded to the allotted runway where it sped down and lifted up into the wild blue yonder of the sky above.

Thinking that this flight was like all the other flights I had been on, the flight would be as routinely boring as the last. I decided to find a comfortable position in my seat next to my buddy Sweets, who was fidgeting with his marine issued M-4 assault rifle, and pulled a hat over my face in order to attempt to sleep through the bulk of the journey.

A few hours later, I was rudely awakened by some shouting from the front of the plane near the cockpit , "What the hells is going on? Why has this plane been detracted from the planned flight course from North Carolina to our base in Iraq?"

A response soon accompanied this, sounding like it came from one of the flight crew, "Sir, I'm sorry there nothing I can do, we received orders from the office to the Secretary of Defense; ordering us to change the original flight path and set a new course that proceeds near the Bermuda Islands." I pushed my cap from my face and followed the sound of this heated conversation to the front of the plane. Discovering that the source was Colonel Shepard and the co-pilot, whose name I believe was Tom, angrily staring at one another.

Wanting to diffuse a possibly violent outcome to their argument I saluted the Colonel, "Sir! Should I inform the rest of the men of our current change in route?" Shepard looked at me for a few seconds with a bit of surprise on his face; as the majority of the marines present on the plane had fallen asleep, were spacing out with their I-pods, or some device similar to that. Regaining his composer, the Colonel responded, " No don't wake them at this point. It doesn't even matter as this poin;t as we are already flying over Bermuda as we speak." I gaped at this statement and inquired, "Sir, we're not going to be flying into the Triangle are we?" I had watched and read enough stupid TV shows and books to know that the area was well known for being the doom for both ships and planes that dared to venture into its unholy region.

Colonel Shepard was about to reply to my question when suddenly a violent lurch from turbulence shook the plane beneath out feet; causing both myself, Shepard and Tom to be flung to the floor. After regaining some semblance of stable gravity in the plane, Shepard said,"Go back to your seat Lieutenant. There's nothing you can do now. Were at the mercy of God now, or whatever higher being watches over us in this world." He muttered sardonically.

It took me a few seconds to make it back to my seat in the middle section of the plane. When I finally was able to sit down and buckle myself in, Sweets who was previously asleep, asked me ,"What the hells is going on Joe?"

I thought to myself that he must have seen the pale look on my face from hearing where our plane was flying into right as he spoke to me. After thinking about how to respond for a few momentsl I turned to my friend and said, "Sweets we're in the freakin' Bermuda Triangle and I have a feeling something terrible is about to happen to us, we may actually die here man."

I watched as Sweets face developed a look of horror that was perhaps similar to the one that was plastered onto my face at that very moment. Sweets was opening his mouth to say something, when suddenly the plane violently convulsed again and a cry rang out from a soldier, another buddy of mine -a Gunnery Sergeant- named Jason Grimms, who was staring out of a window of the plane, "Holy shit guys! Take a look out your nearby windows, there's some freaky shit happening out there in the sky."

Dreading to look out and see what the hell Grim was seeing out that window; I nonetheless turned my head around to the window behind my and Sweets seats. To my horror-filled amazement that the sky outside had changed from it characteristic blue shade to a dark-brown cloud filled space that was shooting out lightening of various colors of the rainbow. As I stared outside that window, I remembered how in one Triangle TV show detailed how an entire squadron of World War Two fighter jets codenamed flight 19 disappeared in 1945 after encountering similar crazy weather conditions in the infamous Triangle area.

Suddenly, a strange sensation overcame my senses and it felt like we were all was being pulled into a vortex in a manner similar to being sucked into a black hole in space. I saw the men around me, including Sweets, begin to keel over as if they had been knocked out and I felt that a similar outcome was going to overtake me as well. I fought the urge to pass out for a few more seconds and managed to look out the window one final time and saw how the sky around us had changed into something akin to those transdimensional vortex you see in science fiction movies and then the world blacked out around. While this was happening I was sure we were all going to die from whatever the hell the triangle was doing to us. Little did I know that this event would begin a long odyssey into a world filled with beings that we humans had once thought existed only in our imaginations… Dragons!

* * *

**AN:** This is the first fanfic I have written so please no flames! Constructive and valid argumentative reviews will be appreciated. Also, it will take a few chapters until the link between my marine characters and the film's so please bear with me here!

**Notes On The Gear of The Marines:** main weapon that most of the marines will be carrying is the standard military issued M4A1 carbine. The **M4, **for short,has selective fire options including semi-automatic and full automatic option in place of the three-round burst. The weapon fires 5.56x45 NATO ammunition. Most M4s will have mounted AUG scopes for long range fights and will have flashlights attached to the underside of the barrel. 2. For side arms, the marine will be equipped with the standard issued semi-automatic Beretta 9mm pistol that is used by all police and military forces in the United States today. 3. On top of their uniforms the marines will be wearing what is called Interceptor body armor that is used to protect the soldier from small arms fire and fragmentation bits from explosives and has pouches for spare ammo magazine and loops for grenades. 4. Standard Issued modern day desert colored camouflaged uniforms,boots, and Helmets will be worn by the troops as well. 5. Each Marine will have two M67 Fragmentation Grenades attached to the loops on their body armor, useful for clearing out a dug in enemy. 6. Finally, a few lucky marines will have access to Shoulder-launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon (SMAW) is a shoulder-launched rocket weapon with the primary function of being a portable assault weapon (eg bunker buster) and a secondary anti-armor rocket launcher. Info for these weapons and gear was obtained from Wikipedia.

If there is anything else that needs to be addressed please let me know!


	2. A New World

**Disclaimer: **See Chapter One.

**AN: **I've decided to split up this chapter into 2 parts, though I'm not sure if future chapters will follow a similar pattern.

**Acknowledgements: **First I would like to thank again my Beta reader Star-Struck Inu for all her help she has provided me so far. Also I would to thank all the people who have reviewed and favored this story far.

Chapter 2. A New World

Part 1. Arrival….

Blackness surrounded my vision and I felt sure that we had all died. Suddenly, I felt someone punching my shoulder shouting "Hey wake up Lieutenant. Sir, we've got a major problem here!"

Slowly opening my eyes, I turned my head up to see the face of another soldier from our squad, a heavy machine gunner Private named James Haggard, staring down at me from a standing position.

It took me a couple of seconds for my mind to kick back in and remind me about that earlier Bermuda Triangle vortex situation, but I soon became competent enough to say, "What the hells going on Private Haggard?"

Haggard quickly answered back, "Sir, the situation is almost completely F.U.B.A.R.E.D, Sir! We have absolutely no idea where we are right now." Haggard then continued, "Sir, take a look out the window and see for yourself."

Haggard proceeded to offer me one his hands and I quickly unbuckled my seats safety restraint and pulled myself to a standing position. Turning around to where the window was behind our seats, I was shocked to see that our plane was no longer flying through that vortex-like thing I had seen earlier, but we were currently traveling in the darkness of night over an open ocean dotted with a number of islands here and there. These were being revealed by some light from the moon above us.

I muttered to myself, "Oh Shit! where the hell did that freakin' vortex take us?!"

I stared back at Haggard, "Has _anyone_ been able to figure out whether those islands I see down there are recognizable features of the Bermuda's?"

Haggard spoke quickly, "No Sir! Before I was able to wake you, the plane's pilot announced over the intercom that they have no idea where exactly we are right now, Sir."

Digesting Haggard's news was a tough pill to swallow but I soon turned my attention to observing how the rest of the marines onboard were dealing with our current out-of-whack situation. The majority of marines were staring out their respective windows with a similar expression of shock and surprise that was probably plastered on my own face.

I heard the familiar voice of my fellow squad mate and buddy, Corporal "Sweets" Sweetwater, coming up from near the front of the plane, " Well look who finally decided to finally wake up from his beauty sleep! Welcome to the Totally Screwed Up party we're all having on board Joe!" We currently cruising at an unknown altitude, over unknown waters, and are now free to move about the cabin." I added this, you of course can just take out the red and it'll be like before.

Shifting my head towards where my buddy was standing I was about to respond to Sweets unnecessary remarks when a violent shudder rocked the entire structure of the plane; nearly taking me off my feet. After a few seconds I could hear one of my fellow marines scream in panic, "Holy Shit! One of the engines on the left side wing just exploded!" Another voice scream, "Good God! I think I just saw something black as this night sky flying out there and it dived bombed our damned wing!"

As I took in what that marine said, the rational side of my brain was telling me that he must have been seeing things. But looking out the window and seeing for myself how one of the engines on the left wings were almost completely destroyed I wondered who or what would have the courage to attack a United States military aircraft in such a violent manner.

As I was mulling over what had exactly happened out there to the engine, the pilot's voice chimed out over the intercom, "All able-bodied passengers grab your nearby parachutes immediately, this bird is about to go down hard! I'm holding it steady for now, but were only running on 3 engines out of 6 now and were losing fuel like you won't believe. Prepare for immediate bailout now!"

It only took a moment for the pilot's word to sink into the rest of us and we all ran in a mad scramble to grab the parachutes located under each of the seats that every transport plane had if such a disastrous occasion should emerge.

After grabbing the chute from under my chair I quickly loosened the straps a bit on my marine issued backpack in order to adjust the pack to the front side of my body; so it was over my trustworthy M4 assault rifle and proceeded to strap the parachute onto my back. I heard Colonel Shepard's voice ordering us all to line up in two lines at the back of the plane near a large cargo door that is opened with the press of a nearby button on a control panel. Finding a spot near the front of our twenty man line, I looked around to see that the other three men in my squad: Sweets, Haggard, a Sergeant named Nick Bahr, and further back my high school buddy Grimms; were lined up right behind me. Looking back at the front I saw how Colonel Shepard, wearing a chute now as well, kept glancing between the two lines he had formed when again the pilot voice came back on over the intercom, "Colonel were losing control up, here bailout _now_!"

Colonel Shepard turned to the control panel to the left of him on the wall and punched the button to open the cargo door; which slowly opened with a jarring loud screeching. Shepard snapped his head back to the rest of us, "This is it men! Go, Go, Go!!!!" His words were met with our Corps "HOO-RAH" battle cry. We proceeded to jump out of the plane through the cargo hatch two at a time. As I found myself next approaching that open door and felt the tingling of fright, as our squad had only practiced simulated versions of parachuting out of a high attitude plane. I remembered, though, how we Marines never quit. Nor did we allow any sort of fear to hold us back from performing a direct order. It was these thoughts which allowed me to find the courage to bravely leap out that opened door like a bird taking flight.

A few seconds into the free fall I was experiencing, I realized how grateful I was that before jumping out I had been smart enough to put on both my combat helmet and dessert eye protection goggles. Without them thewind would've probably ripped my regular cap right off my head and my eyeballs (socket's can't be ripped out) along with it. Suddenly realizing that my musing was costing time and that the ground was fast approaching, even though we had probably been about 500 to 600 feet above ground. I pulled the release string on my parachute and the pack burst open to reveal a large fatigued colored chute that quickly spread open like an umbrella, allowing my descent to slow down to a decent speed.

With the horrifying thought of falling to my death out of the picture window that was my mind. I decided to turn my head in all the directions I could in order to view the current status of my fellow marines. The ones that I could see in that moonlight sky had opened their parachutes and were safely floating down in a manner similar to my own descent; but I was horrified to see how the cargo plane was dropping out of the sky like a bat out of hell with its wings burning off.

I, just then, realized I had not figured out where exactly were we all going to land before jumping. I looked down to see a large island (island itself doesn't need to be capitalized unless there is a name with it) below us that was shrouded in some sort of thick fog. From the angle that my chute was descending in I could tell that I was going to land somewhere in the mid point of the island. That wasn't so bad, the only problem was the large forest surrounding the area with huge trees that some, unaware fool could crash into and become entangled in the vice-like branches.

As I neared that forest I cringed inwardly -marines didn't cringe on the outside- 'Oh man, this going to hurt and suck royally all at the same time.'

The forest grew closer and closer into my view and I tried to angle my body in order to convince my chute to avoid the more clustered areas of the tree line. This was to be all in vain of course, as my chute soon became entangled in a bunch of limbs overhead. Even though the branches had stopped my chute the momentum generated by this tree landing caused my head to bang against another tree's branch in front of my body. As the world began to black out around me; I had enough rational thought left to look back up into the sky and see other marines encountering similar tree related problems. However, I swear upon everything I hold holy; that for a split second a black shape was winging it's way through the sky barely illuminated by the moon's frail light. Those were last few seconds I remember before passing out once again.

* * *

Part 2. A Shocking Discovery….

Unlike the last time I had been knocked out; I soon regained conscienceness and found that my chute was still hanging me from that accursed tree branches that had caught hold of it. Looking down, I could see dimly that I was suspended about ten feet from the ground; so I pulled out my combat knife from the holster on my right shoulder and started to cut the lines that maintained my connection to the trapped chute.

As I was working at cutting those damned lines I heard Sweets voice shout out from somewhere on the ground below me, "Hey Joe! I can see you hanging up there! What do you think your doing? Pretending to be a kid's Piñata or something?"

I looked back down at, where I assumed he was, and angrily retorted "How the hell did you manage to avoid hitting a tree, you lucky bastard?"

Sweets -ha finally pinned him down- looked like he was about to respond to my comment when one of the lines I had been cutting finally decided to give way with a snap and I found myself hitting the ground below me with a large thumping noise. Sweets immediately burst into that distinct laughter of his, walked to stand over me, "Jeez Joe, this just not your lucky day. Someone out there must have it in for you!"

Sweets offered me his right hand, which I grabbed right away in order to lift myself off the ground. After checking over my body to ensure that I had not broken anything from the fall and tree related landing, "So where are the rest of the squad Corporal?"

Sweets finally stopped chuckling to answer, "The rest of our squad are right over there in a nearby clearing Joe, but I will tell you that the rest of platoon is mostly MIA. I think that so called orderly jump of ours has caused everyone to become spread out throughout the entire Island."

After digesting this piece of information, I replied, "Whatever, as long as those men are still alive and our weapons still work; we can kick the ass of whatever hostile force it was that dared to attack a United States Marines aircraft. Right Sweets?"

Sweets only responded with that "Hoorah" cry of the Corps and began walking in the direction where he had said the rest of the squad was currently holding up.

The walk to the clearing took only a few minutes and we soon cleared the tree line. I was able to see that Haggard and Bahr were both standing around with their weapons clearly visible -and ready- checking the forest around them. Surprisingly, I also noticed that Gibson and his squad were standing with Colonel Shepard and appeared to be holding some kind of discussion.

Sweets shouted out, "Hey guys! Look who I found hanging out in the forest while we are all here trying to figure out what the hells going on here." All the soldiers turned to stare at us for a moment before Colonel Shepard looked at me, "Glad to see that you survived the drop Lieutenant; not everyone did. I'm trying to establish some kind of base camp here in order to begin search and rescue operations in order to bring this shattered platoon back to full battle strength."

Realizing where this conversation was inevitably going to lead to, I took the initiative and said to Shepard, "If I may speak freely Sir?" Shepard responded with a nod from his head, "My squad and I will head out into these woods in order to find other survivors; bring them back here and kill any hostiles that try to stop us. Is that okay with you, Sir?"

I could see that Shepard was surprised by the fact that I had offered to volunteer my squad to perform search and rescue operations. But he nonetheless responded, "That's fine with me Colonel; move out now while we still have the cover of darkness to protect us from whatever attacked us up in the sky."

Saluting the Colonel, hastily I turned to look at the three men of my squad, "All right! You heard the Colonel, let's move out and save some lives; maybe kick some ass while doing it marines!!!" The squad responded with shouts of, "Hoorah!!"

We then set off at a quick pace into the dark forest surrounding the area near the clearing.

As we were marching along through the trees, Sweets walked up behind me and whispered into my ear, "I hope you did the right thing in volunteering us for this job. I know that you either saw or heard about that flying thing that attacked our bird up there earlier. We're probably better off sticking together in that clearing at least with numbers. No sane person or creature would dare to mess with pissed off marines."

I whispered back, "I agree with you on that note Corporal, but we can't just leave our fellow marines to God knows what's out there here on this island."

Sweets was about to whisper something back when, suddenly, Bahr who was walking ahead of our little procession shouted, "Hey! I think I've found something that you'll want to see Lieutenant. Get your ass up here now!"

I quickly looked at up to where Bahr and Haggard were standing on top of some kind of little rock outcropping near another clearing in the forest. Running over to the two men, with Sweets right behind me, I was soon hit with an awful smell that reminded me of burnt flesh. As I stepped onto the outcropping with my fellow squad mates I was somewhat horrified to see a number of at least four human bodies; probably males, sprawled out on the ground below in various twisted positions of death.

All of us looked at one another and saw how we all shared similar expressions of horror on our faces; but those soon disappeared and we descended into the clearing weapons ready to figure out what had happened in that terrible place.

As I neared one of the bodies, I could discern that the man had been hit with some kind of attack that had burned most of his body savagely; leaving very little for whoever his family was to mourn over. Prevent myself from retching at the sight, I then turned my attention to the body next to the horribly burned one to discover similar burn marks; but this body had escaped the worst of the blast and was wearing what appeared to be a modern day military uniform. Dusting off some ash from the sleeve I could clearly see a flag emblem that looked if I eyes were not deceiving me, like the flag of the Russian Federation.

I muttered out loud, "Oh My God! These poor bastards are Russian soldiers." Haggard who was looking over the third dead body looked over at me said, "I think your right Lieutenant! These guys are definitely Russians! They've got the uniforms and weapons to match those bastards, come over here and check this out!"

Approaching Haggard, I could see how third solider had not been killed by whatever fiery blast or explosion that had killed the other two; rather his body looked shredded up by what appeared to claw marks of some feral animal or something. However, the soldier's uniform clearly revealed that the man was a member of the Russian military, possibly a member of their special forces called Spetsnaz. As I was looking over this third body, the rest of squad came over to stand next both Haggard and I, with Sweets saying, "How the hell are Russian special forces here? What the hell is going on?"

Abruptly, we heard a groan come from where the fourth soldier's body was lying. Training our M4s at the prone body, I walked cautiously over to the man and saw that even though he had been mauled pretty badly his eyes were still open and he was breathing shallowly.

Man, the way those eyes stared back at us freaked me out. I have never seen first hand the look of an absolute irrational madman until looking into that soldier eyes.

Contrary to his appearance however, the soldier muttered out in somewhat heavily accented English, "Americans…here? How the hell did you boys get here?"

I stared at the solider for a few seconds, "We don't know, we were kind of hoping you can tell what the hell is going on here and maybe where here is in the first place, soldier?" The wounded Russian laughed at that and with great sarcasm responded, "A good soldier will never willingly reveal either his nation's or army's secret so your out of luck there G.I. Joe. Your all going to die real soon too you arrogant dogs!"

I looked surprised at this comment of his, "Why would you say such things to men who can help you? Last time I've checked America and Russia are allied nations; not enemies anymore!"

The Russian again laughed, "That may be true American, but what we were doing out here is vital to a cause that is too grand for an insignificant grunt such as yourself to understand."

I turned my head to look at the rest of my squad and I saw how the Russian's comments were angering them tremendously. I realized that if I didn't do something to diffuse the situation this wounded Russian was about to join his fellow comrade in death.

I looked back at the Russian, his time was running out as he was beginning to cough up blood, "At least tell me your name soldier. What did this to you and your fellow men?"

A look of anger came upon his face and he responded, "My name is Ivan Alexandrovich, Lieutenant of Spetsnaz Alpha Squad One. My squad was sent out because we had picked up on our radio's the frequency of an American plane that was going down in the sky above us. As we were making our way from our HQ to investigate we were attacked by something… a monster that came from the sky above us. We barley had any chance at all."

Ivan was ranting and he began to convulse violently as one sometimes does when approaching the end of life. I kneeled down and I grabbed his left hand with my right one in order to try to alleviate his suffering.

As Ivan took a firm hold of my right hand he stared straight into my face, "You are all going to die soon too, Americans. The Night Fury will come for you as did us and slaughter you like a wolf among helpless sheep."

With that crazed statement Ivan's head turned to the side and he died right then and there. Leaving us four marines with an absolute feeling of dread and impending doom.

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**AN**: I hope I am not offending anyone by bringing in Russians into this story, but I felt they would make more sense in the long run with my plans for this story then say Nazis or something lol. I will try to update again when I can as my college professors are starting to heap the end of the semester workload on us poor defenseless students lol. Please read and review!


	3. Enter the Night Fury

**Disclaimer: **See first chapter. I will claim ownership to the concept behind this story and any OC's that I create.

**AN:** On the third scene of this chapter I will be switching the story's point of view to a new non-human character I hope you all will enjoy. Also, I would like clarify to anyone interested that any negative words or views expressed at the Russian characters in my story do not reflect my own personal opinion of the Russian people as a whole. Even though I'm part Russian myself, I felt that the Russians were the only realistic antagonist figures I could use in the context of my story. Honestly, the idea to even use Russians as the principle bad guys was probably brought on from playing too much Modern Warfare 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

**Acknowledgements:** I would like to thank my Beta reader, Star-Struck Inu, for all her help she has provided me so far. This chapter especially reveals her expertise in taking the mistake filled mess I had originally written and turning it into what I can only describe as being art in worded form. Also, I would to thank all the people who have reviewed and favored this story far.

**Warning: **This chapter will contain a lot of blood, cussing, and a somewhat graphic death of minor characters! So if you're squeamish you've been warned! However, future chapters will probably not be as bloody, since I wish to maintain a T rating.

Chapter 3. Enter the Night Fury

..Ambush and Capture..

Watching a man die right in front of your eyes is never a pleasant experience for any who witnesses the act firsthand. Reaching out with my right hand, I gently closed Ivan's blank staring eyes. I turned my head to look at Sweets, who decided now would be a great moment to break the atmosphere of dread that had descended upon our small group, with a slight hint of panic in his voice he asked, "What in the freakin hell is a Night Fury?" Following a few seconds of silence, Haggard responded to Sweets' outburst calmly, "It's got to be some kind of animal or something that is native to this Island, Sweets. I'd bet you a million bucks that Russkie bastard was just trying to scare us; which he seems to have done successfully from the way you're reacting Sweets."

Sweets tossed Haggard a very dirty glare, "Screw you Haggard! An animal? Yeah, right! What kind of normal animal that we know of, is capable of killing four highly trained Spetsnaz soldiers, without getting wasted too?! These guys are the elite of the Russian military, Haggard." The man paused for a moment, his face thoughtful but voice still tense, "Whatever attacked these guys should be lying dead on the ground, not them!" Haggard just stared at Sweets, a bit taken aback, before nodding his head slowly, "You're probably right there, Sweets. Whatever did this," the man tensed, "is something no human from our world has seen before."

Bahr who had been quietly standing to my left spoke up, "You guys are probably going to think I'm crazy here… but based upon what I can tell from these bodies, I think we might be dealing with a thing that should not even exist." I looked sharply over at the tall red haired soldier and asked, "What do you mean Sergeant?" Bahr let out a small sigh, sounding doubtful of himself, "I think this Night Fury creature, or whatever the hell that soldier called it, is a dragon… Sir."

'_A dragon?!' _I thought incredulously, not one those evil beasties that only exist in the realms of fantasy and mythology? But the image of that dark flying shape I had glimpsed while still on the plane, and during the subsequent parachute descent, came clear as day into my mind's eye. _'No, it's not possible?'_

Shaking the thought of such a being actually existing, I was about to tell off Bahr for suggesting such a ludicrous idea. As per usual, jabber mouth, Sweets beat me to the punch; his tone of one of bemusement. The kind of bemusement parents used when they told their kids Santa Claus really didn't exist, "Dragon? Did you bang your head a little too hard on way down from the plane Sarge? Those things aren't even real for crying out loud." He chuckled to himself, as if imagining the idea of it. Bahr looked indignantly at Sweets, "Shut up Sweets! I don't hear you offering a valid suggestion as to what it is exactly we're dealing with here."

Sweets opened his mouth, most likely to snark at him with his trademark jerk-ass comments, when a noise caught our collective attention. A crunch, that sounded like something of human origins was stepping on some random fallen branch, came from the forest to the left of the clearing we were in.

A voice cursed in Russian and all hell broke loose. Gunfire from what sounded like at least six different AK-74 automatic rifles erupted from the darkness brought by night. I immediately hit the ground, going into a prone position behind one of small rock outcroppings in the clearing, and leveled my M4. I squarely aimed it into that heavily clustered section of forest, where the muzzle flashes of Russian weapons were appearing here and there. I yelled calmly, always calmly, to the rest of my squad. "Find some cover and return fire! Shoot to kill, Marines!"

Sweets and Haggard didn't even need me to tell them that, as both had hit the ground behind another rock outcropping to my right at almost the same time as myself. But to my mounting alarm, Bahr was still standing and firing like some kind of Rambo wannabe into the hostile controlled forest.

"Get down Sergeant! Do you want to get your head blown off?" I snapped at him, calmness leaking away a bit. Bahr seemed to finally snap out of his wild rage, but it was to late as one of 5.45x39 mm rounds from a Kalashnikov sliced into his right kneecap and sailed through the ligament like a knife through warm butter.

Time seemed to slow for me as Bahr slowly fell to the ground, cradling his wounded leg, and moaning in pain. Furious over the fact that one of my squad mates was lying wounded, as this was the first time such an event had ever happened while under my command, I switched my M4 firing mode to full auto. Without blinking, I unloaded half a clip into the area of the forest where the shot that had hit Bahr seemed to originate from.

Meanwhile, with the help of both Sweets and Haggard, the two men had managed to drag Bahr behind the slim cover offered by the rock structure in front of them. Sweets spared a glance in my direction, "Shit! We're screwed if we stay here! We've got to fall back and find a medic; Bahr's hit pretty bad and he's bleeding all over the place!" His voice barely making it over the sound of gun-fire.

Realizing the validity of Sweets words, I agreed, "Roger that Sweets. You and Haggard get Bahr out of here! I'll lay down some covering fire in one…two.. three! Go! Go! Go!" Placing the butt of my rifle against my right shoulder, I pulled the trigger. I fired the remaining 15 rounds left in my clip into the forest while Sweets and Haggard, each supporting the wounded Bahr on their respective shoulders, took off in a light jog towards the other side of the clearing. I spared one precious look, to be sure they were heading back in the direction from which we had came from.

Turning back, I ejected the now empty clip from my M4. I was about to reach for a fresh one from my ammo belt, when something, almost delicately, impacted on the ground to my right. Looking over in that direction, I felt my pulse speed up; what had made that sound was a grenade. Knowing that I only had a few second to react before the device would blow me to pieces; I jumped to my feet and started to run towards where I could still dimly by the moonlight. I could still see the rest of my squad running ahead. Unfortunately for me, I had not gotten far enough to escape from the blast radius of the grenade. It went off a -rather short- second later and hurled my body to the ground. Landing hard on my back, I dimly tried to see whether any of the shrapnel from the grenade had embedded themselves into my body; when I heard multiple footsteps approaching me from the area I had attempted to retreat from.

A male figure, it was too dark for me to really see his face, wearing the same uniform that the slain soldiers of the Russian Spetsnaz appeared over me. I was still trying to regain my lost equilibrium, my ears filled with a deafening ringing sound. Holding an Ak-74 pointed directly at my head; the soldier stared down at me with disdain clearly written on his face blurred face; dust and debris stinging my eyes. I was sure he was aware I could not fight back, I was too disoriented to even sit up. He lifted his weapon up, aiming the butt of the weapon, before he slammed it into the left side of my head. The blow had been a good one and served the purpose of its provider; the world began to tunnel into a darkness far blacker than night.

'Why do I keep getting knocked out?" Was my last strewn together thought.

..Interrogation and a possible savior?..

Time holds no meaning when one is unconscious. Minutes can seem like hours; hours can appear to last years. However, not matter how deeply knocked out I was, a hard kick to my stomach and an accented shout of, "Hey! Wake up American! Nap times over!" was enough to rouse me. The blow had knocked any air I had out of my lungs; gasping painfully for breath, I gradually opened my eyes. My vision was met with the blurry image of a Spetsnaz soldier towering over me.

Laughing at my reaction to the kick, the man spoke, "Well…well…well." he managed in an unhurried fashion. His words were understandable, but thick with that unique Russian accent. "Glad to see that you have returned to the land of the living GI."

As my vision became clearer and the need to acquire new air dimmed; I began to shift my eyes from left to right in order to figure out where exactly the Russians had taken me. Ignoring my splitting headache, the first thing I noticed was that I appeared to have been taken to a cave of some sort. Not a very deep one, from what I could tell, as the entrance appeared to be only 25 to 30 feet away from my current position.

Two more soldiers stood guard outside the cavern, silhouettes barely discernable. They were chatting amongst themselves in their native language. I would have observed longer; but the soldier, noticing how I staring at the entrance said, "Barely awakened and already planning your escape, eh?! Don't even think about it; you're tied up tighter then anyone we have before!" The looming male said it as though I won a prize. I didn't see his fist curl up before he was already swinging; he landed a decent punch right into the left cheek of my face.

Damn did that hurt like hell; it was in about the same area where that other soldier had hit with his rifle earlier, and my vision swam. I was not about to lose consciousness though this time; and sharpened my focus. Laughing again, the tall Russian turned around and strode towards the entrance of the cave where he soon was joined by three more soldiers. They appeared from the right side of the entrance each holding an Ak-74 assault rifle in their hands; they all began to converse in Russian.

Shifting my body a little I realized the soldier, he seemed to carry his body with more authority though, was correct in his assertion about the tightness of the ropes. I could barley move my body; I examined the number of ropes around my chest and arms. They entrapped me in an upright sitting position; with my back to a large stalagmite that jutted out of floor of the cavern.

I had only a few minutes to contemplate the hopelessness of any ideas I may have formed to escape from my current predicament; before the soldier and his three comrades turned back in my direction. Standing in an authoritative stance over me, the soldier who had punched me earlier, said in English, "We were just debating on how we should deal with you!" He gestured, in an insultingly lazy way; as though I weren't worth the time to even explain anything to, to the three other soldiers. "These two here feel that we should just shoot you and be done with it. Ah, but I know that it would be unwise as our commander has ordered that any captured persons, should be interrogated before being executed." He gave an unnervingly cheerful grin.

"Personally, I want to shoot you too. But being the loyal soldier I am, we'll start with some questions first before getting to that ugly business!" Interrogating was a business? I eyed them, 'Well for them maybe.'

Kneeling down onto his left knee beside me he began again, "Now it is customary before a serious discussion to introduce oneself! My name is Mikhail Egorov, and I am currently a Lieutenant in our glorious nation's Special Forces section called Spetsnaz. What is your name GI? I can already see based on your uniforms markings that you are a marine! What rank are you?"

I stared at Mikhail for a couple seconds, he made it sound as though he were asking me if I preferred coffee or tea, then I responded coldly, "My name is Joseph Gibson. I am a Lieutenant as well, in the 1st Platoon 2nd battalion, 2nd Marine Corps. I would tell you my serial number but I always forget the damned thing; being slapped around hasn't helped. If you want to see it, the number is on my dog tags around my neck beneath my shirt!" I snapped the last part out like an angry dog. Mikhail seemed mildly amused by what I had said. "A Lieutenant too, eh! How many men do you command in your squad?"

Laughing bitterly, without a slight bit of humor in the tone, I stared at him. "As if I would tell that to you! You might as well have asked how many of us there are on this Island."

Mikhail grinned broadly at my declaration, "Bravery! A quality to be expected from a marine such yourself. Lets see how long that holds up."

Mikhail pointed to an area to the left of my current bound position, "Look over there and see where bravery and duty to their friend got them!" Looking over to where Mikhail was pointing, I was filled with revulsion. The bodies of three fellow marines were lying on the floor of the cave; their faces clearly bruised from the beating they had received. I also noted how the dead marines all had wounds on their foreheads; most likely execution shots from some firearm. I whipped my head back to Mikhail, calm pretenses gone, and snarled out, "You _sick_ son of a bitch! You won't get anything from me! You might as well kill me now and get it over with!"

Mikhail and the three other soldiers laughed even harder at this remark before Mikhail said "Looks like this American need to be persuaded a bit more." He nodded to two of the three soldiers standing behind him, "Vladimir, Dimitri show this marine how we treat rude guests." '_God damn, son of a-_'

Vladimir and Dimitri gave me a beating like which I had never experienced in all my years in the Corps. Punch after punch landed upon both sides of my face, kicks slammed into my sides. The damage due to this one-sided brawl was quite ugly; my left eye received a pretty good right hook and I could no longer see out of it. I hoped to God that it was only swollen, and that the bastards had not blinded me. I could feel and taste coppery blood in my mouth; from most likely my teeth grinding into my gums due to the impact of the various punches. Other injuries were present I'm sure; but I was tied up and getting a beating to boot.

After what seemed like an eternity; I was barley aware of what was going on around me and dimly heard Mikhail, "That's enough!" his cheerful tone gone, "Let's see if our friend, the Lieutenant's tongue, has been loosened." Vladimir and Dimitri backed off, and Mikhail calmly walked over to stand over my badly beaten body. He lifted my head up and looked right into my right eye to see whether I was still competent enough to reveal whatever damn information he wanted from me. "Ready to tell me how many there are of you on this Island; and where they are currently holed up marine?"

My answer to this question was simple and to the point. I stared at Mikhail for a few seconds, my weary brain processing and reacted on impulse, then spat blood at the Russians blurred face. My snarl was softer, but no less fierce, "Go to hell you asshole! Whatever happened to respecting the rules of the Geneva Convention centered on the decent treatment of prisoners of war?"

Wiping the blood I had spat at him off his face with the left sleeve of his uniform Mikhail answered "Prisoner of war? What war would that be? You are no prisoner of war, Mr. Gibson." '_Oh, so I'm _Mr._Gibson now,'_ I inwardly snorted. "You and all the other marines here; are spies sent to discover a secret that all of us are willing to die for in order to protect." Mikhail released my head, giving it a tiny tap, before slamming one final punch to the right side of face. The tall Russian took a few steps back to join the other three Spetsnaz soldiers standing nearby.

Surprisingly, the third soldier who was still unnamed, looked at Mikhail and said in English, "This one is as stubborn as the other three marines we killed earlier. I say we kill him and leave this place, now. We can rejoin the rest of our unit to the north before that god-damned, Night Fury bitch find us. Just as it did Ivan and his squad. I'm sure General Zakhaev will be pleased when we tell him that our squad managed to kill some Americans."

Mikhail contemplated the third soldier's statement, "I agree killing these four Americans will definitely get us in the General's good favor; even though we have yet to acquire any information on the location of the Moskva yet." He shrugged broad shoulders. "All right I will do the dirty deed this time! This marine is a Lieutenant after all and the level of bravery and courage he has shown so far has earned him the right to be executed by a soldier of the same rank." I refrained from rolling my eyes, after such a terrible beating, he was going to kill me politely? I felt strangely calm; too many hits to my cranium?

Reaching with his right arm to a holster that was attached to a belt on Mikhail's thigh; the Russian pulled out a pistol that was model I could not recognize in my bludgeoned state. Mikhail then took a few steps to position his body a few feet from my sitting one. He raised the gun up to level it with my forehead; and he said with a somewhat dark chuckle, "All right, you scum of the American Marines! Offer up a prayer to whatever God you currently believe in."

Vladimir, who was standing to Mikhail's left, jokingly said in broken English, "Maybe if you beg for your life; he'll kill you a lot quicker." I knew that there was nothing I could in such a situation, how much faster could I be killed than by a bullet? I could only offer a defiant glare back at the Russians with my one open eye; which only seemed to increase their merriment over the matter of the execution.

Abruptly, I heard a strange noise coming from outside near the entrance of the cave. It sounded like the whistling noise of something diving down through the air. The two soldiers standing guard outside the cave shouted, "Night Fury! Take Cover!"

Everything seemed to slow down again, as everyone in the cave turned to the entrance, and saw a comet shaped, purplish-blue fire impact on the ground right between the two entrance guards. Based on their screams, I was sure they had been horribly burned by the blast and may have even been completely disintegrated; that'd be nice I think.

The four soldiers in the cave finally reacted; with Dimitri and Vladimir rushing, with their AK-74s cocked and loaded, out to engage whatever the hell the Night Fury thing was exactly. Gunfire erupted outside the cave; I could tell that the two soldiers were doing their best to kill the creature. However, their efforts proved useless, as that same whistling noise appeared again; there was another explosion was heard. The sounds of combat died off at the same time the blast resounded through the cave.

The two Russian Spetsnaz soldiers left in the cave, Mikhail and the third unnamed soldier, were obviously upset and growing scared by what had occurred outside this little safe haven of a cave. The unmanned man shouted "Oh my God! That goddamned beast is butchering us as it did Ivan's squad! What are we going to do?"

Taking a deep breath to calm himself; Mikhail turned his head to look in my direction, "Take up a flanking position near the entrance, Pavel! If we are to die, at least we will die fighting like the elite soldiers we are. The American's death, however is long overdue, and I shall finish it."

Nodding his head franticly, the soldier whom I now knew was named Pavel, took up a position behind another medium sized stalagmite that was jutting out from the left side of the cave's entrance; with his weapon aimed at the entrance in from of him. With a determined look in his eyes, though I would have say they looked more like the eyes of a man that has accepted that he is about to die, Mikhail again leveled his pistol up towards my forehead.

"It was nice chatting with you Marine. We'll be seeing each other again soon in Hell as you said earlier!" His voice was no longer mocking, but quite serious. I could see how his index finger was beginning to squeeze the trigger; when the sound of something large and heavy landed on the ground; resounded from the entrance of the cave. Both Mikhail and I turned to see what had made that noise; dread welled up as we saw what I can define to be something that should never even exist; a dragon. The beast walked on four legs, each ended with clawed appendages that, somewhat, resembled human hands. It had two large bat-like wings that extended from it's serpentine body's middle section, but were currently tucked tightly against the body. The head shape appeared salamander-like, with two eyes that's pupils were slited like a snakes, but were colored a beautiful and glowing emerald green.

As if to show off to us insignificant humans, the dragon opened it's mouth slightly to hiss at us, revealing it's dagger-sized -and just as sharp- teeth that lined the gums inside its mouth. Teeth that, I'm sure, could shred a human being apart easily. Interestingly, there appeared to be two scaled ears on the top of the head that pressed flat against its scaled cranium. I wondered if, like many other animals, this was to show the beasts' hostility towards a perceived threat. However, the most striking feature of the dragon, was its scales which were shaded the color of the night itself. '_No wonder this beast is called a Night Fury_,' I dimly thought to myself, it was as if the night itself has been given life.

After what seemed to last a life time of us all just staring; the Night Fury slowly turned its head to glare at the soldier named Pavel; who was hiding to the left of the entrance. Pavel must have been stunned by the presence of this magnificent creature; he did not even move to fire his AK, but just stared stupidly at the dragon with an absent look in his face. With little to no effort, the dragon pounced onto the stupefied soldier, pinning the man beneath the dragon's body with its two front paws. Only then did the soldier seem to return to himself and realize his predicament.

"Help me comrade! It's going to kill me! Please for the love of God help me!" Even if Mikhail could have offered Pavel some sort of aid, armed only with his pistol in hand, the dragon crushed that idea by quickly lowering its head and viciously ripped open the screaming man's neck with its sharp teeth. It shredded him to pieces with those equally sharp claws on it's paws.

Mikhail and I could only stare, horrified and paralyzed, as the dragon ripped the poor bastard to pieces right in front of us. Human blood flowed all over the floor, dark and sickly red, near the site of the dragon's frenzied attacks on the body of what was once a well-built Spetsnaz soldier.

After some time of surveying its handiwork, the dragon lifted it's head back up from the kill and shifted it's gaze between myself and Mikhail; as if trying to decide which one of us would be next to die. '_Those eyes_,' I thought to myself, _'those are not the eyes of a wild animal. Those the eyes of a creature that is as intelligent, maybe even more so, then us humans.'_ Upon this realization, I whispered out, "God have mercy upon us and our souls."

Following another minute of being subjected to a dragon staring down us two remaining humans; the dragon focused it's gaze on me and I swear on my soul that I saw it's mouth smirk slightly. As if it had figured out that I was tied up, and could not even begin to hope to offer any sort of resistance from an attack from one of the beast's natural weapons. The Night Fury then centered it's gaze on Mikhail, who was still standing with that unknown pistol in his right hand. The dragon opened it's mouth to release a very hate-filled and livid sounding growl at the one remaining Russian.

Realizing that the beast was most likely going to kill him before turning it's attention to the bound American nearby; Mikhail shouted at the dragon, "Die you bitch Night Fury! Die!" Mikhail brought up the pistol and fired the entire clip at the dragon, but to his dread, he might as well have been throwing rocks at the dragon. The high-velocity bullets appeared to have little effect on it's scaled, armored body.

The dragon bounded over to Mikhail, but it did not pounce on him and pin the crazed soldier as with Pavel. Instead, the beast reared back to stand on it's back legs, and towered over the doomed soldier; who was snarling back at it. Letting out a loud shriek, the dragon opened its mouth wide open to reveal those deadly blood smeared teeth, and bit Mikhail's head clean off his shoulders with one great snap. Mikhail's body staid upright spraying blood for a few seconds before toppling to the ground; where it twitched a couple of time before growing still.

Swallowing down the piece of Mikhail it had bitten off; the Night Fury licked it's blood stained lips clean before settling back down onto all four of it paws again, like this was an every day occurrence. Which, for all I knew, it might well possibly be. The dragon then looked back at me still tied up pathetically on the ground, it's ears lifted off it's head inquisitively as if to show curiosity before lowering back again. It was as if it were pronouncing a death sentence on a convicted criminal, and it began to approach my position slowly.

I was absolutely terrified out of mind at that point, after all, dragon; need I say more? But I could do little, very little, other then stare at the nearing beast that would end my short existence on whatever insane world I had landed on.

I couldn't even believe how fearful I was of that approaching beast; a beast that had single-handedly butchered six highly trained Spetsnaz soldiers as if they were rabbits; in a pen! I remembered vividly at that moment, how my old boot-camp drill sergeant told us every morning before running our gauntlet of an obstacle course, "A marine is trained to never allow fear to overcome his emotions. Does anyone know why? Well, I'll tell you! Because a scared marine is a dead marine, ladies, don't you ever forget that."

In a span of a few seconds the dragon was right before me. Had I the luxury of free use of my hands I could have easily reached out and touched it's snout with little effort. How fitting such a beautiful beast could be capable of such destruction. The Night Fury's gaze and the way it's nostrils worked, smelling my entire form over; made me feel like the beast was looking over me like a piece of meat, ready to be devoured at it's leisure.

The dragon lifted it's right front leg; it clawed appendage slammed up against my abused chest; near my throat before releasing a might roar of fury and rage right into my face. This act combined with my earlier trauma from both the grenade blast and the beating I had received, was too much for my mind to handle let alone process. I soon lost awareness of the cave around me as began to black out once again.

I did have time to silently thank whatever God or guardian angel was watching over me. I would at least not be awake to experience consciously, whatever terrible act the Night Fury had in store for me; it's helpless victim.

..The Tragic Tale of the Night Fury..

As I neared the stiff tied up figure before me; I could feel how my instinctive anger at these retched humans was screaming to be unleashed on the one that remained still alive in this small cave. I could see that the human, a male from his musky scent, was absolutely terrified of my obvious superiority over him due to the violent demonstration that the other six pathetic humans had provided. I stopped before his bound body and lowered my head to sniff at him. I paused to decide whether I should take my time killing him or just make it quick as I had done with the one whose head I had just bitten off.

My dragon instincts roared in my mind to kill him now; without thinking I slammed his body near the throat, pinning him against the stalagmite he was tied to with my clawed paw. I then unleashed a primal roar right into his face. As expected of their kind, he had passed out due to his fear of being killed by such a superior being such as myself.

Chuckling, I opened my mouth and prepared my teeth for the killing blow; but paused, something about this particular human piece of meat caught my eye. The clothing of whatever thing he was wearing, looked distinctively different from the ones worn by the men I had already killed. The colors did not match up at all between them. His clothing was what I would describe as desert tan color; while those of the already killed prey wore dark green; but mingled with patches of brown periodically.

That shouldn't have mattered, and I should have sealed his fate here and then, but that realization made my intelligent brain speed up quickly into overdrive. My first thought was that he obliviously was not on the same "side" as the other humans. Why else would they tie up one of their own in such a manner as they had foolishly done?

Humorlessly, I was reminded of a story my father once told about when I was still a hatchling. How humans would offer bound victims, often these "virgin" things, to us dragons in order to appease us from attacking their settlements. The next thought to pop into existence, was an idea that I perceived as ridiculous, but held potential. It was the idea that perhaps here lay a potential ally that could aid me in my crusade to eradicate the monsters that had murdered my entire family a few weeks ago.

I snorted at the idea as soon as I became aware of it; but now past my blood rage, noticed how the smell of death and decay was emanating from the back of the cave. Turning my head to peer into the darkness, my kind does have the ability to see in the dark after all, I saw the sprawled bodies of three more men wearing the same clothing as the bound man in front of me currently. It was only then, did I realize that this piece of human meat knocked out before me, might prove to be a worthy pawn in my quest for vengeance against the evil hordes of the foreign murderers that had butchered my family.

I could tell, from what I observed of the still breathing human, that he required some sort of aid from a fellow human if he was ever to wake up properly. So using my claws; I cut the ropes that bound him to the stalagmite. Using my teeth to toss his still body onto my back, I turned to leave. Out of cave, I stretched; spreading my wings as the night air assaulted my body. The humans was only a slight weight on my body, barely registering at all.

I took a running leap and was into the air before beating my wings allowing me to climb higher into the sky above. I knew of a human village that was a little off to the North from my island, a place called Berk. It was a place where my deceased family and I had heard dragons and Vikings lived in peace with one another. Perhaps, I could find aid for this scrap of meat on my back over there amongst his own kind. As my flight took me over the land of the island below; it soon turned to the expansive ocean. I began to reminisce over how the terrible events of a few weeks ago had ruined what was once a perfect and happy life. What had caused me to become the revenge-driven avenger I had become.

..Flashback Sequence..

My name is Onyx and I am a young female dragon; but not just any dragon! I am a Night Fury! The rarest, the most intelligent, and the most deadliest dragon to ever open it's great wings. The greatest to ever soar through the skies of this pitiful, human-filled world! My race is an old one; my breed of dragon is even older then any living being present today. There is an old saying amongst those loathsome beings that call themselves humans; that a Night Fury is the unholy offspring of lighting and death itself. It is on that one note, that I have found to be in complete agreement with those puny worms.

In the air, on land as well, no sane creature dares challenge the might of a Night Fury. We possess the strongest fire breath attack of any species of dragon, we can reach speeds that any Deadly Nadder or Monsterous Nightmare could only dream to attain. Once we lock our uniquely hypnotic eyes onto whatever prey dares to defy us, we never miss with our fire breath attack, nor will we give them a chance to escape on the ground. Without even needing to land, we bring our sharp claws and teeth to rip the prey limb from limb.

Even with all of our deadly natural given traits, the Night Fury breed is somewhat different from the other dragons in our thought processes. A Night Fury would never blindly charge into a problematic situation, not without first assessing that it would emerge victorious. We're not stupid dragons, like Gronkles or Nightmares, that tend to charge blindly into battle; as if they were chickens with their heads bitten off.

Now that I have clearly expunged all the glories associated with my breed; I'm sure you've detected from my earlier observations of the humans in the cave, and in my comparisons between our race and humanity. You can tell how hateful I am of the lesser beings that inhabit our vivid world. Honestly, before that horrible event that happened a few weeks ago, I didn't always hate the various human tribes. Those humans who call themselves Vikings. The humans that inhabit the various islands around my home Island. In fact, I was very curious to learn more about these so called Viking of a place called Berk; especially after my family learned of the death of the bitch Queen Dragon that had controlled the various species of dragon kind for many generations.

However, my warm feelings towards the little insects changed the day the foreign humans arrived on our Island. That day had begun as normal as any other day. I awoke in our cavern nest on the Eastern side of the Home Island; to discover my mother and younger sister were still asleep. I snuck quietly by them to the entrance in order to breath the refreshing, clean air brought by the morning light.

As I made my way to the entrance; I noticed my father sitting outside the den with a strange expression clearly visible on his age-weathered face. Seeing that I was staring at him with an inquisitive look, my father said in our dragon language, "I saw the strangest sight while flying over the ocean last night. A number of human boats appeared on the horizon heading towards our Island. But it did not look anything like the Viking ships I have seen, periodically sailing the nearby waters. I was curious. I followed these strange boats for over an hour before about ten of them landed upon the beach that is a few miles from our here. Around thirty strangely, dressed men jumped off them."

The older dragon cocked his head. "They appeared to be searching for something; as they remained on the beach for almost twenty minutes before one of them, who appeared to be their leader, ordered in a language I have never heard before. He shouted and all the others began to follow him; heading into the forest that lies between our home and the beach. Based upon the rate they were moving at I fear that the group will soon arrive here."

My father paused again for a few seconds, before continuing, "I'm debating whether we should prepare ourselves for an enemy or to welcome them as friends. As the rumor is that the war between humans and dragons has ended with the recent death of the Queen at the hands of another Night Fury. But that's only if you believe the stories the other dragons have been telling us."

My fathers words hung as if they were suspended in the air. As I digested his news regarding strange boats and humans that he had never seen before, I replied, "I'm sure those dragons stories about the end of the war is true. We should welcome these foreigners kindly and establish peaceful relations right from the beginning."

My father looked at me with a toothless smile on his face before saying, "You are too idealistic for your own good; my foolish young daughter. But your word is valid and I shall await their arrival here by the entrance. Go! Fly and see where they are now."

Returning a toothless smile of my own to him; I hunched my back legs slightly, before leaping off the ground with my wings and tail fins spread wide open into the sky. After reaching a decent enough altitude, one that would allow me to view the entirety of the forest that lay near our den, I leveled off. Hovering for a bit, I saw through the tree line. I observed how the humans my father mentioned were making their way through the forest. Based on my rough estimates; would soon arrive in the small clearing near our cave in about ten minutes.

Excited at the prospect of meeting these foreigners so soon, I quickly flew back to the area above the clearing and landed right next to my father."Father, I have good news, those men will be here in ten minutes!" Shaking his head at the excitement clearly present in my words, he regarded me with another toothless smile, "Ah to be young and carefree again! I only hope the ill feelings I have about these particular humans, proves to be only the worried musings of a dragon that is growing senile in his old age."

Although in theory, ten minutes would seem to only last for a very short amount of time, each minute appeared to go by for hours. My father and I sat outside our home waiting for this strange band of humans to arrive, my tail swishing anxiously. After what seemed to be an eternity, our very keen ears picked up the sound of many footsteps crunching on leafs in the forest in front of us, we are dragons after all.

Abruptly, a large number of strangely dressed human figures appeared from between the trees, but only one of them dared to fully step out of the tree line into our small clearing.

He must have not seen my father and I at first, as he was looking at some strange thing in his hands that resembled a long stick. However, the male soon looked up from whatever he was holding and froze, standing as still as the tree he was near. Attempting to break the human's surprise my father quietly roared a greeting in our language to the frozen human.

Instead of responding in whatever language he spoke the human raised the stick thing he was holding between his arms and aimed it in my father's direction. A shockingly loud noise filled the air, it sounded like the crack of thunder. A small burst of fire periodically leapt out of the sticks end, which was answered by an startled, angry snarl from my father.

Craning my head to see why my father had snarled; I was horrified to see how whatever was coming out of the stick was inflicting harm on the older Night Fury. The sound of thunder and the fire originating from the weapon soon died out. My father breathed in a painful sounding breath and launched one of our species' trademark bluish fireball attack at the human. The stupid human, who had dared to attack us, and cast aside our peaceful intentions.

The human let out a short yell before the fireball impacted against him; he was instantly blown up into small chunks of flesh and bones. However, the danger had only been temporarily averted as the rest of human group charged into the clearing firing similar stick things at my father.

Realizing that even a Night Fury could not withstand such overwhelming odds, my father shouted, "Run Onyx! I'll hold them off as long as I can." I then heard the worried voice of my mother shouting from the cave behind us, "What is going on Obsidian?!" She then let out a gasp as she saw the large number of humans converging on our home and the terrible wounds being inflicted on her mate. She turned quickly, "Flee Onyx ! Your father and I will take of these vermin."

Although my natural instincts as a fierce dragon screamed for me to stay and fight these traitorous killers; I opened my wings again and leapt into the sky. I beat my wings to fly away from the disappearing clearing below me. Catching a warm air current I glided over to the southern side of the island and reached another clearing on our tree covered island. I landed there to recuperate the strength I had used up.

I could not breath normally; I worried over whether my family was going to be able to deal with those deceitful humans without dying in the process. As I grew agitated in worrying over my family's fate; time seemed to fly at a speed comparable a Night Fury in it's prime. The slow dawning of horror washed over me. I had left behind my ten months old younger sister, behind in the cave.

How could have I forgotten such a vital detail in my haste to leave? Why hadn't my parents yelled for me to grab my sister before telling me to flee our home? These two questions tortured my brain for almost three hours before I decided that I had stayed in this clearing long enough for my parents to have safely disposed of the attacking humans. Taking to sky once more, I flew as fast as I could back to our cave. As I began the approach to familiar area, I noticed to my absolute horror how two large black bodies were lying still on the grass; surrounded by at least ten equally still human bodies.

My large heart skipped a beat, I almost plummeted to the ground out of the air in a heap, but I managed to land softly on the ground below me. I couldn't even blink my eyes as I saw the heavily bleeding bodies of my parents lying next to one another; the two of them in a sort of embrace that mocked their love in life.

I approached them and nudged both of my parents with my snout; but neither responded to my touch. I knew from the wounds inflicted on both of their bodies that humans, the very humans I had been excited to welcome and perhaps become friends with, had murdered them in cold blood.

Raising my head up towards the sky I let a out a deep mournful wail of anguish that I was sure the entire island would hear, which is exactly what I wanted. After producing the loud sound for what appeared to last for an hour; I then realized that I had yet to know whether the foul beasts had slaughtered my younger sibling as well. I bounded quickly into the cavern and made my way to the back of the cave where our nests lay only to discover that she was not in there.

There was no body, nor was there any sign that the humans had killed my sister as well. There was nothing except for a small spatter of blood near the front of the nest she and my mother had shared together.

Turing to exit what was once a utopian place, I made my way out of the cave in a state of shock. I sat down on my haunches and stared once again in the direction where my parents lay in death; but I suddenly heard a slight groan of pain come from behind my mother's still form.

I immediately sprang over to her side and looked over to see one of the strange humans who had played a role in my parents death. He lay on the ground next to my mother; the man looked terrible, he had received a terrible slash to the chest and lay bleeding to his death on the ground. How his comrades had missed him I did not know, nor was I in the mood to care. As pure wrath filled my mind and a red mist seemed to descend over my vision. I vaguely remember pouncing on top of the prone human; pinning him to the ground under my body before unleashing a vicious roar right into his panic-stricken face.

Following the roar, I lowered my head so that we both would see eye to eye. I spoke to the human in my language, "Murderer! You will receive no mercy from me only death! You killed my family when we only intended to offer friendship to your pitiful kind. I swear upon all the deities that we Night Furies believe in; that I will hunt down and slaughter everyone one of you foul beings as you did my family today! I will find my sister, I will not rest!"

Not caring that the human would not understand my words I unsheathed my teeth from my gums and dug them into the flesh surrounding his throat tearing out a piece of flesh. The human let out one final gurgle; his head twisted to side and twitched one final time before succumbing to the wound I had given him. Swallowing down the flesh in my mouth; I raised my head once again and unleashed one final roar before taking to the sky. I would both avenge my slain parents and rescue my sister who might still be alive….

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**AN:** Wow this was a long chapter. I'll try to update again when college related stuff allows the time for it. Please read and review. I would really like to know whether or not I'm doing a decent job with this story so far!


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